TRYING OUT BIKE: Riot tries a big bike after opening the 2013 National Skills Carnival and Expo at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park. — Bernama photo
SERDANG: Human Resource Minister Datuk Richard Riot noted yesterday that more than 1.24 million individuals were certified as skilled and eligible workers under the Malaysian Skills Certification system.
He said there were 1,119 Certification Centres nationwide to implement various skills programmes to realise the government’s aim of generating 50 per cent of skilled workers by the year 2020.
“Since 1993 to September this year 1,240,388 people have gained the certificate,” he said after opening the 2013 National Skills Carnival and Expo at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang here on Friday.
The event, from Thursday until today, provides the public with the opportunity to learn about the available skills and witness skills demonstrations and simulations.
He said the carnival was part of the government’s initiative to attract the community, especially youths, to skills training in line with the SkillsMalaysia brand.
He said the aim of SkillsMalaysia was to streamline the efforts of various training agencies and industry players so that the technical and vocational education system could fulfill the needs for a skilled work force.
Meanwhile, Riot announced that the national skills competition will be known as WorldSkills Malaysia from next year to mark Malaysia’s progress in the event.
“The winner will represent Malaysia at the Asean Skills Competition in Hanoi, Vietnam next year and World Skills Competition in Sao Paolo, Brazil in 2015,” he added. — Bernama